Standard industry practice for material acceptability of composite components composed of zirconium, other corrosion resistant metals (including alloys), and/or welds is to assess the quality of an oxide film grown on the metal by any of various methods. Such techniques have also been used in the development of new alloys, in heat treating practices, and for evaluation of welding techniques. A film's acceptability can be assessed by the gain in the specimen's mass attributable to the film or by the oxide film's appearance to an operator. The mass gain technique provides a quantitative result but does not provide information about the oxide layer's quality, e.g. its thickness uniformity or the degree to which it contains contaminants. An operator judges a sample's appearance by visual comparison of the sample to a visual standard. Being subjective, the sample comparison technique's effectiveness depends upon various parameters, e.g. the inspector's training, skill, and experience, and control of the inspection area environment.